The White House came under bipartisan pressure from both sides of the Capitol to provide weapons to Ukraine Thursday.
Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee made a big push on the issue, while a bipartisan group of House members called for the same course of action in a letter.
“The United States must act with urgency to provide defensive lethal assistance to Ukraine,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
“Russia’s invasion of sovereign territory of Ukraine, which has continued unabated in the face of political and economic sanctions, is the gravest threat to European security in decades,” he said.
In an unusual display of bipartisan agreement, McCain was joined at the press conference by the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).Meanwhile, the group of House lawmakers said that the administration needed to provide weapons to Ukraine to deter further Russian aggression.
“We are calling on the Administration to increase its support for Ukraine. Tighter sanctions and greater humanitarian assistance should be part of that support, but now, more than ever, the U.S. must supply Ukraine with the means to defend itself,” they said in their letter.
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